The Chanukah Story

by Danit Ilsar

A long time ago, around the time of Shavuot, Mattathias and his five young sons, Jonathan, Simon, Judah, Eleazar and John went on a journey from their village, Modi’in, to the Temple in Jerusalem. “I can’t wait to get there,” said Mattathias, “I love this place very much”.

“What’s so special about it?” asked his son Judah, who always seemed to be the most daring of the five brothers.

“Oh, my dear sons,” their father ('Abba') replied, “The Temple is the holiest place for the Jewish people. This is the place where we all gather to pray to our one and only G-d. We gather there to celebrate festivals and to meet our Jewish friends. Even a court with a judge sits there to assist us whenever we have a disagreement with someone”.

Judah and his brothers couldn’t wait to get to the Temple…

When they reached the Temple, they found it crowded with Jewish people, celebrating, laughing and talking to friends. There were no pictures or statues. Everything looked very holy.

“What is that?” asked Simon, pointing at seven flames dancing on a golden base. “That is the menorah. It is made according to G-d’s wish. It has seven branches filled with pure olive oil that never stops burning”.

“Never? How?” asked Simon. “The oil is refilled again and again” replied Abba. “Wow” whispered Simon, “They need lots and lots of oil” “You are absolutely right” answered Abba with a smile.

After a long and happy day in Jerusalem Mattathias and his sons left for home.

“Thank you, Abba,for taking us .We loved visiting the Temple. It was a great experience,”said Judah, and his brothers agreed. “Yes it was,” replied Abba. “Now you know how special it is. And you understand why the Jewish people say they are so proud of the Temple that they would do anything to protect it”.

“Of course”, answered Judah, “I would too!” And again his brothers agreed.

Little did they know that later in life they would have to keep their promise.

In the year 175BC a new King was appointed to rule over Jerusalem. His name was Antiochus the 4th. He didn’t believe in one G-d like the Jewish people did, and decided that everyone, including the Jews, should do the same. He forced the Jews to stop living by the laws of G-d. He didn’t let them keep Shabbat and celebrate other festivals.  Which holy place for the Jews did he want to change? That’s right, The Temple. He brought forbidden things to the Temple, smashed many of the holy things and placed idols (statues of false gods) there instead.

That was when Mattathias and his sons decided to keep their promise. They would fight to defend G-d’s law and do anything to keep the Temple. And so it happened. Mattathias started to fight, but because he was old he appointed his son Judah to be the captain of the small group of Jews. Since Judah had been strong and daring since his childhood, Mattathias called him Judah Maccabee ('maccabee' is the Hebrew word for 'hammer').

Judah and his small group of friends would harass Antiochus’s big army who even rode elephants. But even those elephants could not help. The small group of Jewish people managed to get to Jerusalem and seize the Temple.

When Judah and his people walked in they were horrified. Their once beautiful Temple was a mess. It was dirty, weeds grew everywhere and idols were placed around it.

“Oh, our beautiful Temple, our holy place, our pride” cried Judah. “We can’t leave it like that, we have to clean and purify it”.

They all got to work. They scrubbed and washed and scrubbed and washed until it was clean and ready to be rededicated. The celebrations were about to begin when Judah’s brother, Simon, shouted; “Wait, where are those beautiful seven flames I remember from my visits to the Temple as a child?”

Everyone stopped, realising that Simon was right. They needed olive oil. They needed it urgently, and the search began.

“Found it” shouted Simon. Indeed, a tiny jug of oil was lying deserted in the corner. “That’s not enough” said Simon in disappointment, “It will not keep the Menorah burning for long”.

But what a miracle! It did. The tiny bit of oil was enough to keep the flames burning not for one, not for two, but for the whole of eight days until more oil could be prepared.

So you see, the celebration of Chanukah is to remember the determination the Jewish people had to keep their faith and their Temple. The chanukiah (Chanukah menorah) is lit to remind us of the miracle of the tiny jug of oil that was enough to keep the menorah burning for eight days.

To remember that miracle we light the chanukiah that has eight candle holders standing in a row plus an extra one for the candle called the shamash that serves to light the candles. On the first night of Chanukah the shamash lights one candle and then we add one candle on each night until all the lights are lit on the eighth night of Chanukah.